Did you know that while writer L. Frank Baum is best known for the film
based on his book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, he was
actually quite prolific outside of his Oz series (which contained 18 books)?

In fact, Baum wrote 24 books geared toward a “little girls” market under
the pen name “Edith Van Dyne” and six books for boys as “Floyd Akers.” He also
wrote two novels, The Fate of the Clown and Daughter of Destiny under the name
“Schuyler Staunton.” His other pen names included “Hugh Fitzgerald” and “John
Estes Cooke.”

Speculation asserts that Baum adopted so many pen names so as not to be
typecast by his popular Oz writings. He wanted to explore other fantasy and
adventure themes without the pressures of having them compared to the world he’d
created in Oz.

Today’s children most probably know little of Baum’s work beyond The
Wonderful World of Oz. We wonder if parents and teachers would more readily
offer the countless other options of his writing, if he’d penned them all under
his birth name.